The state-run National Stabilization Fund earned a net total of NT$3.51 billion (US$120.79 million) on the local stock market last year by disposing of all of its equity holdings, an official at the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said yesterday.
“The National Stabilization Fund’s performance in the stock market has been fairly successful and balanced,” Vice Minister of Finance William Tseng (曾銘宗) said by telephone.
Tseng is the executive secretary of the fund’s management committee.
The fund was authorized to enter the stock market in late December 2011 to help stabilize the stock exchange.
It was instructed to start selling its holdings in local shares in April last year and sold all of its equity holdings in 45 listed companies on Nov. 15, the vice minister said.
Tseng said the average rate of return stood at 8.14 percent, with the fund’s investment in Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) — the main contract manufacturer for Apple Inc’s technological gadgets — generating the highest profit at NT$528 million, with a rate of return that amounted to more than 13 percent.
By contrast, the fund’s investment in Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) — the nation’s only listed oil refiner — was its least profitable, reporting about NT$69.73 million in losses, the vice minister said.
In other news, the ministry’s National Property Administration is scheduled to auction superficies rights for five land development projects in Taipei in the first quarter.
The administration is aiming to ensure that the state-owned land is in continuous use.
Two of the five plots — both in the capital’s Zhongshan District (中山區) — are likely to attract more bidders because of their better setup and larger size compared with the other plots, said Lee Jeng-tzong (李政宗), the deputy director-general of the administration.
Three of the plots are designated for commercial use, with one intended for residential use and the other two available for both commercial and residential purposes, Lee added.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained